Aberrant

Chapter 33

"Bergfalk," Kaplan greeted him. "Things got lively."

Atlas grunted and gestured to his superficially damaged face. "This is what happens when the roaches break their organic recyce protocol and leave clothes and tech on bodies. In this case, a homemade frag grenade. Went off as we shifted some bastard's remains into our cargo hold. Fortunately, the biohazard container the body was in took the brunt of it."

Kaplan remembered the grim visuals Atlas' team had provided. A larder full of clothed, decomposing corpses. Only biomatter should have gone into the soup. "The Xykeree were disposing of evidence, not harvesting organics."

Atlas nodded. "Something ugly forced them to abandon ship in a hurry. The Bullhead's key systems were fried. And there were a lot of dead roaches on board. Some blown to hell."

Kaplan thought of the fragmented exskels Jinx had seen, the Cetus raider on Tirus 7, and the scorp it had annihilated. "Could it have been an internal dispute?"

Atlas scrubbed his unshaven jaw. "Possibly. But mutiny isn't the Xykeree's usual MO. When the bastards move, they generally move as one. Hive behaviour. Talked to one of the anthropologists. One possibility is the ship lost its queen."

Kaplan considered that, nodded. "They lose focus, revert to instinct, start hunting prey indiscriminately."

"And with no leadership, there's disagreement." Atlas lifted a heavy shoulder. "It's a theory."

Kaplan leaned back against the viewing window. "Whatever the issue, they were thinking clearly enough to try and cover their tracks. Why didn't they trigger the barge's self-destruct protocol?"

"The ship's electronics were toast. No doubt the reason they evaced. The techs are trying to resurrect system logs to figure out what went on, but I'm not hopeful. Every key node and backup in the ship's e-systems got totalled. We do have a possible eyewitness, though."

Kaplan recalled the man's report. "The live body you pulled from the larder?"

"Yeah. Poor bastard's meat. Half-digested. He got dunked, but his upper body wasn't in the soup when we found him. Lungs were clear and functional. He's part of the reason we were recalled. The Silver Dawn's got the med tech he needs. But even if he pulls through, it'll be weeks before intel extraction is viable."

"Any ID?"

"He lost his ID pip along with most of the flesh on his left arm. He has old neurotech, but it's non-functional. It'll take time to track part numbers to an installer. Going by tissue breakdown, he got dumped in the larder within the last twenty-four hours."

"That's consistent with the timing of the aliens' clean up."

Atlas nodded. "Him and some of the other less juicy remains are probably from a vessel intercepted after the aliens' attack on Tirus 7. If the non-Xykeree tech we found stored near the Bullhead's starboard airlock is anything to go by, the roaches have made a regular habit of pulling small vessels in and stripping them of crew and other resources."

"That meshes with other intel."

"Yeah, heard about your witness and the blood she claimed she found." I know she's aberrant and unstable—Atlas switched to telepathy as the conversation strayed into Rha Si–only matters—but that part of her statement gels. What doesn't is that she inspected the whole vessel and didn't see the harvested tech. She likely to have doctored or manufactured parts of her report?

Kaplan thought of everything Jinx had told him—and what she hadn't. Possibly, but she quarantined the ship in the middle of a severe docking backlog. She wasn't out to make life easy for herself or anyone else.